36348 Kenmore - Instructions

Disclaimer - if you aren't confident about doing this repair, call a repair specialist in. Also, take care not to damage the freezer coils as they have refrigerant in them that I'm told is harmful if it leaks. It may also be under pressure. The instructions that follow won't require you to touch the coils. There is no need to unplug the refrigerator or disconnect the water supply to do this repair. The screw driver you will need is a phillips (the one withe the + head).

1st, take out your frozen food (which, if you need to do this repair may not be frozen) and put it in a cooler or the refrigerator.
2nd, remove the ice cube bucket and dump the ice cubes in the cooler to help keep the frozen food cool. Turn the ice cube maker off.
3rd, remove the freezer shelves.
4th, locate the panel covering the freezer coils. It's a panel at the back of the freezer. It hides the freezer coils and protects them from damage. It's held in place by two screws located at the top left and right corners of the panel.
5th, unscrew the screws holding the panel to the refrigerator.
6th, detach the clip at the top of the panel.
7th, remove the panel. You should see the coils now. The coils will be covered in frost if the defroster heater has failed. If the coils are not covered in frost, there may be another reason for the refrigerator failing to cool.
8th, even if the coils are covered in frost, you should also inspect the defroster heater at the bottom, underneath the coils. The business end of it is a long tube running horizontally between two wires. If it's black like a badly burned out light bulb, then it's failed. If the bulb appears fine, you may have a different reason for your refrigerator and freezer frosting up. We'll assume that the defroster heater has blown out, and proceed.
9th, place a towel at the bottom of the panel space, to soak up any water that melts and runs down. There is a drain under the coils. It collects water that melts during the defrost cycle, but I'd rather mop up the water instead of relying on the drain.
10th, use hot air blowing from the hair dryer to defrost the coils. Just play the air from the hair dryer over the coils, starting at the top, and working down. The frost will quickly melt and the water will be soaked up by the towels. If you want things to go faster, you can throw hot water on the coils to melt them faster, but that produces more water to mop up, and makes a big mess. It's also dangerous to have water lying around if you then decide to use the hair dryer to continue defrosting the coils.
11th. MOST IMPORTANT. Don't use your screwdriver or any other sharp object to pick away at the frost on the coils. If you damage the coils the refrigerant could leak out. I'm told that it's dangerous stuff. Furthermore, I expect that you'd have to buy a new refrigerator if you damaged the coils.
12th, once you've defrosted the coils, locate the defroster heater and bracket assembly again. It's held in place by two screws, and has two insulated wires running into it on either side. Unscrew the screws, disconnect the wires and remove the assembly. Throw it away - there are no useful parts in it.
13th, install the new defroster heater and bracket assembly by connecting the wires to it, mounting it back into its place, and rescrewing the screws.
14th, put the panel back in place, replace the clip, and screw the panel back in place.
15th, turn the ice cube maker back on and replace the ice cube bucket and shelves. Put your food back into the freezer.
16th, use the freezer and refrigerator as normal. If the defroster heater fails again (I'm on my third one in less than six years), you'll notice frost building up on the panel at the back of the freezer before your freezer and refrigerator stops cooling. The frost build up is your signal to defrost the freezer and buy another defroster heater and bracket assembly. I don't know why this part is so weak, and don't know any fix except to keep replacing it.

I have a fridge in my garage. I have found that a glass of ice water or a cold drink outside is very important to me. When I discovered melting ice dripping onto the garage floor I was very upset. I spun the fridge and found that the compressor and fan weren't starting. I got out my multi-meter and discovered that power was not making it to these components. I did some research and found the wiring diagram online. There really isn't too much going on with a fridge and the most likely candidate seemed to be the run capacitor. I ordered the part, replaced it in a few minutes and the fridge began working again.

Symptom: Door did not close automatically. Also had found small chunks of black plastic on the floor. Refrigerator door was slightly lower than the freezer door.

One false start because I did not realize both of the door-closing cams had disintegrated and I had only ordered the cam without the hinge.

Purchased part 290199 Hinge Assembly. It came with matching door-closing cam. (Had not known so I also purchased the cam 297995 separately). Next time I will know to only purchase the Hinge Assembly.

Replacement procedure took about 20 minutes including removing and replacing door shelves and their contents. Two people involved.

1. Remove all door shelves with contents and other contents on door.

2. Remove the top Phillips head screw holding the decorative plastic on the top.

3. Remove the two top hinge screws on top of refrigerator using metric #8 socket wrench. Second person made sure door did not fall off.

4. Lift the door off the bottom hinge pin. Second person holds door on it’s side.

5. Take off the bottom refrigerator cover

6. Remove the bottom hinge assembly screws using metric #8 socket wrench.

7. Mount the replacement bottom hinge assembly and tighten the two screws.

8. On the door bottom, remove the outer screw and loosen the inner screw using metric #8 socket wrench.

9. Replace the door-closing cam (or what is left of it) with the cam in line with the door and cam bumps away from the door.

10. Place the door back on the hinge pin (one person holds while the other person maneuvers the door bottom).

11. Replace the top hinge and reinsert the screws on top of the refrigerator. Dress the door so that it does not press hard on the rubber door gaskets (or the door will fail to shut automatically). Tighten the screws.

12. Replace the decorative plastic over the top hinge.

13. Open the door and replace the bottom refrigerator cover.

14. Replace the door shelves and all contents.

15 Close the door.

Fridge was not really cold. Fan was working at back of freezer. Romoved the drawers and back panel of freezer compartment. Melted ice with a blow dryer and collected water with a towel so that it would not overflow the drip pan. Installed the new defroster units with 4 screws and the easy plug in wiring harness. Bingo! Defrost timer was probably OK but new one is easy to do.

Fixed in one day vs waiting for service call & payng $$$.

Per the trouble shooting guide on the home page of the website. I suspected the defrost timer was bad because ice had heavily accumulated on the back wall of the freezer compartment and the temperature inside the refrigerator was warm. First, I removed all the freezer racks. Then removed the (4) screws on the back wall in the freezer compartment. I then removed the ben from the ice maker to allow more room. Once I saw all the ice, I unplugged the refrigerator, and used a hair dryer to defrost ( it took about an hour to get it all). Once the ice was all gone, I then moved into the refrigerator compartment and removed the top shelve. This allowed me more room and access to the defrost timer which was behind the back panel. I used the trouble shooting guide to test the old timer prior to removing the new one from the package, (just in case I needed to send it back). Through this test I determined that the timer was bad, it wasn't the heating element or the t-stat. It was very easy to access, I removed the two knobs and lifted up the panel. I located the defrost timer and removed the screws as directed. I replaced the timer just as I had removed it, plugging in the electrical terminals per the removal process. I then reversed the order and put the panel and top shelve back on. Once all complete, I then moved back into the freezer compartment and replace the back panel and then the ice ben. I plugged it in and haven't had a problem since. This site has saved me a tremendous amount of money, a service contractor quoted us $300, to determine the problem. I ordered the part and it was sitting on our door stoop the next morning.

I applied some tips learned by reading other reviews. So before I started I grabbed my trusty vise grip pliers and a small screw driver. I locked onto the switch actuator, the part that the refrigerator door pushes in, with the vise grips and pulled on it just hard enough to get the screw driver inserted in the right side to push in the catch clip so the switch could be pulled out further each time the catch clip was depressed to the next detent. Then I used the screw driver on the left site to encourage the switch past the detents on the left and very quickly the switch was out of the mount. The wires from the refrigerator pulled out with the old switch. I unplugged the old switch from the wires and plugged in the new switch and shoved the new switch back into the mount, wiggled it a couple of times to make sure it was secure and the job was done. Once I applied the vise gripes at first, the whole job took less than a minute.

First I took a beer out and opened it then took a sip. Then I went into my garage and searched for my Black and Decker power drill with a phililps head on it. Failure to locate a phillips head bit i took another sip of beer and took out one of those old fashion screw drivers. I went back into the kitchen and much to my dismay the fridge didnt fix itself. After another sip of beer I took the old slide out and took it to the outside garbage. On my way around the house my neighbor started to mock my home fix-it skills and his back yard became the new home for the broken slide. I put the new slide in, reinstalled the drawer, and filled it with beer.

first, made sure circuit breaker was off
second, used nut driver to remove 2 screws on old element, pulled it from the back of the oven
third, removed 2 wires from old element (spade connectors)
fourth, connected new element and pushed back into oven.
fifth, reinstalled 2 screws securing new element

this was all done by my 15 yr old son under my supervision.

I first shut off water flow to the fridge. Examination of the package (which was not exact in appearance to the original) demonstrated that the electrical connectors were well-insulated so I arrogantly and successfully proceded without disconnecting the power. My fridge is old enough that the model doesn't appear exactly on anyone's list so I wasn't alarmed that it took an extra 10 minutes or so to noodle out how to adapt the slightly different inlet cowling and electrical cord with extension, but the device is pretty simple.
Soon I loosened the two mounting screws with a nut driver, used a screwdriver to pry away the plastic snap-in housing over the electrical socket on the fridge inner wall and pulled away the electrical plug. The original water fill tube remained in its cavity, ready for re-use.
The new unit's mounting points matched the original screw locations perfectly, as did the fill cowling - which on the replacement icemaker has two possible attachment points. The new unit's electrical connector required an extension pigtail to adapt to my socket, but it was included in the package. The extra cable posed a minor cosmetic issue because it hangs in the collection basket a bit, but that will soon be remedied with a tie wrap.
After the water was restored and an anxious wait of a few hours, we had well-formed ice cubes that weren't all stuck together and the stalactites haven't reappeared.

1. Important: First you will need to prepare for water from melted ice. Plug the drain hole in the bottom rear of the freezer. Have plenty of rags near by. A pan or small bucket is helpful.

2. Unplug refrigerator

3. Remove (4) screws (2) w/screwdriver and (2) w/nut driver. You can remove the light cover to get it out of the way but you don't have to.

4. Remove the evaporator cover (The rear wall)

5. Melt and remove any ice build up. Remember those rags?

6. Remove (2) screws from the heater bracket

7. Remove the failed heater. My old heater was a single element. The new heater was a dual element. This made no difference.

8. Disconnect (2) wires.

9. Re-route and reconnect (2) wires. The wires were re-routed because the new heater has both wires on the same side. Not a problem.

10. Install new heater on the bracket (2) screws

11. Replace cover (4) screws

12. Power up the refrigerator

I unplugged the electrical connection. Then I removed the 2 screws holding the icemaker in place. I lifted out the old icemaker unit and put the new one in place. Then put the 2 screws back in and plugged in the new unit.

The icemaker started making ice very soon after turning the unit on.

used a screwdriver to remove screw and unplugged part. Plugged in new one and secured with a screw.
Simple

First I removed the two screws that hold the element in place. I then pulled the element out about 3 inches, but I had not turned off the power.
So, I shorted out one of the wires. Then I turned off the power but was afraid to go any farther.
An appliance repairman was at my house that day fixing my dryer seal. He was able to pull the wires through the insulation successfully and install the broiler element. He did not charge me any extra for this little extra job. But I learned my lesson. Cut the power before you begin! He told me that I could have wound up with a much bigger repair if the short had been in the wire that is connected to the control panel of the oven. I was very lucky!

Disconnected the power to the refrigerator/freezer. Removed the shelving in the freezer. Had to remove the light cover (1 screw in center top of light, slide to left and cover is removed) located in the top of freezer to obtain access to the screw in the back panel. Removed the back panel (using nut driver). Four screws (2 at the top and 2 at the bottom). Used a heat gun to defrost the coils enough to remove the screws and wiring harness. I started at the bottom unit by removing 2 screws with a #2 phillip screwdriver to remove the lower defrosting element. Carefully pulling the wiring forward from the sides of the cooling coils until I reached the next defrost coil. Repeat removing 2 screws to remove the next defrost element. Continue to carefully pull wiring harness toward yourself. Remove the Thermostat (just clipped on the upper left side of coil. Remove the plug. Carefully reverse the process to complete the process.

Fan motor has to be removed from the rear. Since this is a (double) wall oven, the hardest part was sliding the oven out of the wall.

First, doors are removed, eight screws that hold the oven in place (along the side of the doorways) are removed. The rear panel inside the oven must be removed to expose the fan. Four screws hold that in place.
Next, slide out the oven. The fan is covered by a tin shroud which is easily removed with a nut driver. The blade of the fan (inside the oven) is held on by a reverse threaded nut which must be removed. The fan motor is mounted with three screws and has two wires plugged into it. Piece of cake.

Reverse the procedure and you're done.

The best part was that I had originally called a service guy, who was going to 'defer me to GE for the repair' because the oven had to come out of the wall!! I think I'm going into the repair business!